Crimson Striker Zero
by verifiaman
Summary: Zero, on the run from Neo Arcadia after the events of Zero 1 with the real X tagging along, find themselves on another interdimensional adventure unlike anything they've ever experienced, a mix of old and new that will leave them confused and at times, confuddled. And unbeknownst to them, they're not alone.
1. Renewal Part 1

**I've been wanting to make this fic for a long time. Three Inti-Creates series in one story, with the inspiration being those namco bandai crossover games. Now that I have the fully translated version of Gunvolt, and more writing experience, I feel comfortable posting this. It's rough in places, mainly the descriptions and parts of the narrative(not very good with describing things) but I'm proud of what I have here.**

 **Mega Man Zero is property of Capcom. Azure Striker Gunvolt an GalGun are property of Inticreates. I don't own any of these.**

"Bored...so bored.." A young teenage boy in a hammock stared dully at the holo screen floating in front of him, a bag of potato chips in one hand and the other busy typing rapidly on the screen in front of him. He was 14, with bright blue eyes that were seemingly stuck in a perpetual droop. He had sandy -blonde hair, somewhat spiky with a large bang swept over his eye. He wore bright blue headphones over his ears, and wore blue swimming trunks. "Nova better hurry up with that patch.."

His name was Merak, also known as the Slothful Conjurer, and one of the Sumeragi's Seven Swordsman. And right now he was suffering the nightmare all hardcore MMO players had to endure: waiting for the game and it's servers to update, which meant he had to go over the report detailing the construction progress of that submarine that Nova wanted built, a day _earlier_ than he planned.

"Construction of Docking Bay 16 is complete, check the energy shielding on tunnel 15..." He yawned. He snapped his fingers, causing a small, swirling blue portal to appear by his side. This was his Septima, Wormhole, which allowed him to open up holes in space-time to any destination. There were strict limits, like not being able to go to places he hasn't physically been for example, but it was a handy tool to dump things on the underlings Nova gave him when he didn't feel like doing the work himself. He reached into it and pulled out a portable gaming device, the Sumeragi Utility Combat Klepto (Named by him of course, he got to name all of Sumeragi's new tech as part of his contract) "Might as well play a _portable_ game or something.." He said with a shudder. As he pondered whether he should bother changing the acronym of the device to something more obscene and stupid, his wormhole uddenly turned red and shot out green energy, causing him to jump and fall onto the sand face first. "What the heck..?" He spat the sand out of his mouth and looked at his portal. He attempted to close it, but it just got bigger and bigger with each try.

"This isn't good.." He turned on the S.U.C.K, pressing a special button on the side of the device. It was never to be pressed unless he had a report to be submitted or if there was an emergency, and this was definitely an emergency. Anything that could affect his Septima like this would require either Nova in a good mood, or a good amount of ass kissing to the higher ups to disable his powers.

[Ah, Merak-san.] The polite, almost impossible to anger tone of Nova Tsukiyomi always put the Seven Swordsman, along with anyone who worked under them, on edge. And given what was happening in front of Merak right now, he was definitely feeling the pressure. [I take it you've noticed the dimensional anomaly, right?]

"You too, huh?"

[It's quite hard _not_ to notice. We were in the middle of recruiting a new Adept into our ranks when the area around us turned into a carnival funhouse.] Merak heard laughter in the background. [Also, Jota-san has de-aged and is in the process of trying to molest my female form.]

"Uhhh..." Merak would make a gay joke about how the Shining Sentinel's near obsessive loyalty to their boss, but there was something else that he needed to ask. "Are you..?"

[Yes, I've changed too., and it's quite obvious that I'm cognizant of the changes] Merak heard a slapping sound. [Sorry about that, he was reaching his hand into my bra.]

"...You're a girl."

[Yes. Can't you tell by the change in my pitch?]

"No." He sounded just the same!

She let out an airy, un-Nova laugh, causing Merak to blanch. He'd seen enough genderbent pics online to know that this was utterly revolting to him. [It seems I've become quite the attractive woman.] She sighed.[It's a good thing for you that my Glaives suppress the negative aspects of my personality in this anomaly. I know it's not your fault that this is happening, but if I was my true self, I would fly over there and crush you with a skyscraper out of sheer anger for your laziness. Honestly, if I could guess who's behind this, it's probably those Eden-] The world flashed green, and suddenly Jota's adult screams of horror filled Merak's ears.

[N-NOVA -SAMA!] The Shining Sentinel blubbered to the once again male head of the Diva Project. [WHAT HAVE I DOOONNEE?!] Merak heard Nova sigh in annoyance.

"Geez, he's loud!" Merak hissed. "Look,I kinda need you to activate the Full Lock function on my Glaive. This anomaly screwed up my powers real good, and now one of my wormholes is growing a wee bit too big for my liking."

[Impossible. Ame no MuraKumo has just been damaged.] Nova warned. [And right now I'm feeling anger towards my sudden gender change. It seems this anomaly is affecting Sumeragi technology as well. We should-] Merak heard a phone ringing on the other end. [Uh-huh..I see... put the video on screen, now.]

 _'Is that Zonda?'_ Merak thought as the video played on the other end. _'Thank god I can't see that freak.'_ He still had nightmares of that freak's male form waking up in his bed. _Why,_ Merak didn't know, but it was funny Wormholing him into the bed of one of the scientists. _'Yeah, that's definitely Zonda, all right. Love, love, love, oh my god will you shut-"_

[And with that, I have made a temporary base in Sinner's Row.] Merak froze, an unnatural cold passing through his body. _'Who is that?!'_ That sounded _nothing_ like Zonda. It didn't even sound _human_! The voice sounded like a little girl, but the tone and affecation sounded like someone who didn't understand basic human mannerisms!]

And it seemed Nova agreed. [Ughhh, I get the point, turn it off, NOW!]

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

[Good news, Merak-san, You were right about the attack by Eden last year being nothing buta diversion. The head office received confirmation on one of our own being an Eden spy-]

"WAS THAT ZONDA?!"

[...Yes. I never thought I'd want to listen to that disgusting love diatrbies clogging my comm channels again. How did you figure it out?]

"Well, I don't know, maybe that because she was a sadomasochistic love freak that can change genders as well as make mirrors with dubiously undefinable uses yet scans of their body only showed one Septima with no genetic enhancements?! Geez, no wonder she chose that personality! I don't even think she even understands all that love crap she kept spouting out! How'd those idiots at the top figure it out?!

[She transformed into an underage girl a few minutes ago.]

"...How does a mirror Septima-"

[I know. Ridiculous. But it happened, right in front of the Glaive Control Center's manager. She didn't even realize it at first, so it was quite jarring to hear that annoyingly perverted, bombastic voice change into one of the most detached, emotionless tone and expression I had ever heard or seen in my life. Her appearance perfectly matched up with what one of our spies in QUILL's middle eastern branch gave us. She's more than a spy for Eden, she's the _leader_ of Eden, who went under the alias Pantera during her takeover of Tanshkent.]

Merak heard a loud thud on the other end. [Interesting. if you'll excuse me, Merak-san, your little hacking buddy just fell from the sky. Jota's too traumatized by what just happened, so I'll have to take care of him myself.] He sighed with relief, stretching his back [Urghh..Thank god I don't have those things on my chest anymore. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to vent some anger for what just happened to me.] The line went dead.

Merak sighed. "Well, orders are orders. Not staying here to see what'll pop out of that wormhole." He raised his hand up into the air and began to recite the password to summon his Glaive, Unwavering Spirit.

 _Light whose fell pillars_

 _Leave rifts in the wider world_

 _And lead it toward ruin!_

A black, triangular sword appeared in his hand. It had an bright blue, upside down Y shape running down the blade, bright blue in the center of the chap, and two blue lines running down the angular crossguard. A black aura appeared around Merak, swirling around his body like a tornado for a few seconds before exploding, leaving Merak in his Sumeragi issued battle armor, which gave him blue horns sticking out of his head, blue pupils, and black sclera. The armor also served to augment his (pitiful) phsysical capabilities and leave him with the ability to increase the power of his wormholes. And since he had this extra power...

"Come on.." Merak muttered, focusing all of his mental power on the growing wormhole, only for nothing to happen. "Well,. It was worth a shot. Knew it was pointless, but didn't hurt to try.." He held his hands out, which was the command to summon his Sumeagi issued battle chair..but nothing came out. "Well...shoot." He looked at the wormhole, and then at the city in the distance across the water. "...Shit.." There was nothing but deep cliffs under the water, which led to high pressure water. And while his suit was given a breathing apparatus in the off chance there was a flood during the submarine construction, but it couldn't protect him from the intense pressure. "Well, I'm boned." He said with a shrug, plopping down on the ground. "Might as well go out doing what I sort of love freaking hate portable games..." He plopped down onto the sand and pressed an icon on the S.U.C.K to play a retro game he downloaded onto it, only to get the worst thing that could happen to a portable gamer on the go:

Dead batteries.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

 _ **Loading mission: Renewal.**_

 _ **Zero travels the endless desert, the vengeance of Neo Arcadia trailing him everywhere he went. But once again, time and space bend to an unknown will, turning the barren desert into a bountiful ocean.**_

-Z- -Z- -Z-

The barren, dry, hot wasteland outside Neo Arcadia was inhospitable to humans and some Reploids. The temperature out there was hotter than the former Sahara Desert in the summer, the air had a slightly toxic taint, there were rogue Mechanaloids from the Elf Wars still left around, some of them from Neo Arcadia itself, used to guard illegal storage depots for the city's less scrupulous citizens. And right now, one of these depots were under attack. For the past half year, Zero had been on the run from Neo Arcadia for killing their supposed leader, or if you believed the Neo Arcadian media, incapacitated 'X', who drove him off, but not until he activated the self destruct protocol for 'X's' chambers, severely injuring the city's beloved leader and costing Neo Arcadia billions in damages.

So as an 'apology', mostly a reason to get Neo Arcadia off of the Resistance's back and to refuel his slowly depleting Energen supply, he decided to go on a bit of vigilante spree, taking the data stolen from Area X and traveling through the endless desert, choosing to dodge Pantheons and the occasional Mutos Reploid, and using said data to look for the illegal storage depots, seeing as how the remaining three military forces were unable to do anything about legally. Whoever owned them must have had an immense amount of pull if they could do something this blatant and reign in trigger happy Fefnir and Leviathan.

The storage depot under attack was a 2 floor, cylindrical underground facility, meant to distribute hundreds upon hundreds of illegal Reploid and Mechanaloid generators straight under the Guardian's noses. The organization that owned this particular depot had it connect to other depots via old fashioned railway system, powered by snyth-coal so as to not alert Neo Arcadia about an illegal use of Energen. The trains were perfect replicas of the trains used during the pre Civil War era of the United States, a personal favorite of the owner, sculpted down to the last detail and worth millions of E-crystals..

..and one of them was just smashed to bits, going off the tracks as it approached it's stop and slamming into a large scorpion Mechanaloid. The robotic arthropod caught it in it's pincers, legs digging into the ground to slow the moving obstacle, when all of a sudden a red figure jumped out of one of the train cars, landing on the head of the distracted Mechanaloid and stabbing it straight where it's main CPU was, shutting it down. "Well that's one thing I can cross off my bucket list." Plus he recorded it too! That Menart kid that he found before he faced the beetle guy, whatever his name was, will enjoy this! He was one of the few Resistance members to listen to Zero's story of the Elf Wars without succumbing to some level of depression. Honestly, Zero didn't understand why Ciel tried putting him in therapy; a Reploid that threw children like Shuriken was more darkly comical than horrible. "Hey X, how's the datamine coming along?"

X's voice came in over Zero's communication system. [88% done, Zero. I have to wipe any traces of our involvement and make sure the Rekku Gundan squadron in the area receive the information.]

"Good," Zero said. Without looking behind him, he punched a Pantheon Guardian that attempted to stab him with it's electric club. "I'm gonna cut the power after I eat."

[You haven't recharged yet?!] X yelled in outrage. [Zero, I told you this plenty of times, you have to watch your energy levels!]

"I was going to,but I can't watch my energy levels if I can't replenish my energy. The E-crystals in the desert are useless, and the last thing I want is to learn if this body can get indigestion." He sighed, rushing towards a group of Pantheons that appeared out of a cargo elevator and began taking them all down with his fists. "It's a good thing whoever owns these depots didn't spring for a Golem or an Orochi Arm." Losing his weapon to the last giant Mechanaloid was a blow he still hadn't recovered from(though not as hard a blow as having his holsters forcibly removed from him by bandit Reploids during a system cleaning). His Z-Saber was a part of him, and Jackie Channing his enemies just didn't have the same feel as cutting them down.

Zero looked around the elevator until eh found the control pad. "Gonna see where this goes. Be right back." He typed a command on the pad, bringing up a holoscreen that displayed the list of floors. "This place goes farther down than we thought." He pressed the icon labeled 'F3' causing the elevator door to close, descending further down in the base. "Five floors unlisted on the schematics."

[That doesn't make any sense. I checked everything in this facility's databanks, and nothing suggests there would be a need to hide seven whole floors.]

"Whoever owns this place must have a lot of pull in Neo Arcadia." Zero said as the third floor came into view. "I don't think a simple mob or organization could make all this."

[All what?]

"There's an entire Energ-" Zero paused, pupils shrunken before his eyes dulled. He fell to the ground screaming, his vision going green as countless error messages filled his vision, complimented by just as many download prompts. "ARGHHHH"

[Downloading system update 4.2]

[Downloading Movement System update 1 of 4]

 _'NOT AGAIN!'_ Zero _meant_ to say, not surprised that he thought it instead of spoke it. Once again, he couldn't feel his limbs or see the world outside the constant stream of error messages. _"Just a few more...seconds!"_ Suddenly he could see again, a dull pain pulsing throughout his body as he realized the elevator had stopped on the 3rd floor...he thought. "X!"

[Y-yeah, I know..] The Cyber Elf said, tired and panting heavily. [I had the same thing happen to me too. This..was the-] He took a deep breath. [-Fifth time today!]

Zero got his bearings as the pain subsided, getting up off the ground. "The Energen lab's not here anymore." He closed his eyes, turning on his sonar for a few seconds. "And no Pantheons..there are six unidentifiables coming my way. Their footsteps are too light to be basic Pantheon models, and they're moving too fast and efficiently to be Pantheons."

[That's what I get for making them on a shoestring budget.] X said with a sigh. [Hold on a second.] He went silent, appearing to Zero's side a second later. "By the way, we're underwater now." Zero muted his yell so as not to draw more attention. "When that data upload happened, this facility's computer systems notified me of a geothermal valve that came loose and asked if I should reinforce the plasma pressure shielding."

" _What?"_ Plasma Pressure Shielding was used for deep sea facilities as a cheap way to protect against underwater pressure. Either he or X would've detected if any shielding was active, and they _certainly_ would've known if this facility connected to the ocean. "So we experience a sharp jolt of pain and suddenly we're teleported underwater. Am I getting that right?"

"Yes. not to mention the fact that the computer registered zero contaminants in the water. It's almost as though the ocean _isn't_ polluted."

Zero sighed. "So that means that we either travelled back in time or we landed in another dimension."

"It's probably safe to say it's the latter, given our past experiences. We're not lucky enough to travel back in time."

"Yep." The footsteps got closer, enough so that Zero's basic audio receptors could pick them up. "Get the camo up and let's see what we've landed into this time." He really hoped it wasn't another dimensional anomaly. Last time it happened was in his Maverick Hunter days, and he nearly got dissected by a human girl with Lego men, him and X nearly got taken by some organization named S.I.N, not to mention that fox girl did something to his hair that made it form into Pippi Longstocking braids after he insulted her less than stellar figure and called her a spank happy masochist.

 _I really have gotten a new respect for the flat chested._ He thought as X turned him invisible, a certain French teenager and her Resistance group on the mind. _I hope to god they're all right._

The six unidentifables came to the elevator, all of them dressed in green armor, with orange and green helmets that obscured their faces. They all had huge, white rifles, Zero and X sighing silently in disgust. Not only were the energy readings on those things basically a giant beacon allowing anyone with a smidgen of knowledge of basic tracking systems to find anyone wielding those bulky things, but because of the energy output on those things, the shot output would be terrible! At least one shot could be fired every few seconds, compared to the Pantheon Hunter's multiround shooting capabilities. At least the armor looked more durable than the base Pantheon models.

"There's no one here!" One of the men exclaimed as X and Zero walked past the group undetected. "We all heard it right?!"

"I heard it!"

"Me too!"

One of the soldiers sighed. "God damn I hate these suits! Bad enough they suck fighting against Reploids-" Zero and X stopped and turned around. "-But they don't even have basic visual spectrum detectors!"

"We're meant to be cannon fodder, not special ops." The soldier sighed. "Let's just get the security chief down here. Whoever made that scream's probably invisible or something." X and Zero looked at each other and nodded, slowly walking down the tunnel and further away from the troops.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"I'm still logged into the system." X said to Zero when they were far enough from the soldiers. "I've downloaded all the files onto my CPU and am currently decrypting them. I'll give them to you for download once I'm done."

"Thanks." Zero said as the two came out of the somewhat dark tunnel and into a lit tunnel. The tunnel was made of transparent domed glass, coated with clear hexagon shaped energy. The dark blue sea and undersea creatures were a welcome sight for the war veterans, having missed the sight. They could see that the tunnel connected to a giant undersea mountain, and it wasn't the only one; dozens of transparent tunnels connected to the mountain to various underwater buildings, some two stories high, some three, and some deep underground given that a few of the tunnels went into the ground.

"Impressive." Zero said as they walked in the tunnel. "What type of evil organization do you think we're going to fight this time? Something with a good public persona? Evil genius with too much time on his hands? Some form of the Illuminati?"

"All three in this case. This base belongs to a conglomerate called Sumeragi." Zero looked at X as he suddenly found himself visible. "I wasted too much energy, sorry. Anyway, Sumeragi has been active since the Heian period, experimenting with this concept called the Lifewave."

"Some sort of supernatural force that gives superpowers?"

"Yes. The important thing to know is that those with the strongest connection to the Lifewave are known as Adepts. They're like the X-men you fought in that one tournament, only a lot more fantastical with their powers. And it seems that the Adepts follow the same theme as in our dimension; 7 of them in charge of important government facilities, with the strongest of them leading the seven. The Adept in charge of this facility is known as Merak, nicknamed the Slothful Conjurer. His power, or Septima as they're called here, is that he can make holes in space-time and go anywhere he wants."

"So he'd probably ambush us with a portal or something."

"Actually, he's been MIA for an hour. He was supposed to report in, but he hasn't."

"Huh. You think it's related to the dimensional-AUGHHHHH!" The two fell to the ground screaming, their vision filled with green and error messages once again as more files downloaded themselves into their systems.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"I HATE RUNNING!" Merak yelled as he ran off of the beach and into the city that appeared from that last green flash. He was despairing over not having anything to do while waiting for death when all of a sudden, a large city appeared out of nowhere, connecting to the beach with the buildings looking more advanced than anything in Japan. He was glad ot have a place to escape to and get away from the giant wormhole of death...

...And then a Molten Tigrex with rocket launchers on it's back jumped out of the portal and began spewing fireballs everywhere. He still couldn't believe this was happening. A _Molten Tigrex_ with _rocket launchers_ on it's back came out of a dimensional wormhole! He knew he shouldn't be shocked. After all, he had to work with Teseo to get Zonda, Jota, Viper, and that druggie from the Pharma Lab out of that strange eight bit dimension, the fervent nature Teseo showed giving credence to Merak's theory that one of the four sucked into that world was a spy. After all, why would he hack into Sumeragi's server with the intention of helping four of the most dangerous Adepts in Sumeragi? Maybe because that video game character, Eko-something, was in there with Gunvolt.

But that was then; this was now, and right now he was focusing on trying not to crap his suit and getting the hell away from the fire breathing, missile shooting super dino. It was only thanks to his suit that he was able to outrun the Tigrex without expending energy, and he did not want to see how well the thing would hold up from the monster's explosive claws.

"Come on, WORK!" He yelled, holding his hands out to summon his chair. Once again, nothing happened. "DAMN IT!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"GOD DAMN IT!" Zero yelled, not caring who heard as his vision came back online. "WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!"

"I-I don't know.." X said through panting breaths. "C-can you open the files downloaded?"

"I CAN'T EVEN FIND THEM!" Zero yelled back as the six soldiers from before ran into tunnel from the way the two came "OH GOODIE, THERE'S SOMETHING TO HIT!" He dashed straight into them and before they could even aim their weapons, he disarmed all six and resorted to very violently(an out of characterly) beat them within an inch of their lives with his bare hands. Each strike was aimed perfectly at various points of their armor, and by the time he was done, they were nothing but bloody, unconscious wrecks. "Ha...Ha..."

"...Z-Zero-?"

"Those updates are messing with my brain." Zero warned, grabbing one of the guns off of the bloodied soldiers. "I knew they were human, but I couldn't stop myself. And those strikes..it was as if I knew where the armor's weaknesses were. I'm feeling incredibly violent right now, X. I haven't felt this angry since that time Menart and Alouette cut my hair and dyed my jumpsuit pink."

"Oh...shoot." There was a small silence for a few seconds. _No one_ messed with Zero's hair, not even X or Ciel. "So..I'll get to decrypting those files and try to find a way to get us out of here."

"You do that. Maybe it'll help us figure out why I have an HP counter on my heads up display."

(ATTENTION ALL TROOPS!) A loud voice blared on the intercom, the tunnel turning red as a loud alarm rang throughout it. (ZERO THE CRIMSON STRIKER HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN TUNNEL 23-A! REQUESTING ALL AVAILABLE PERSONELL TO APPREHEND THE TERRORIST!)

"Huh. I have quite the reputation in this new world if I have a moniker like that" Zero said, a uncharacteristically manic grin on his normally blank face, as if he discovered the joy of raw, bloody fighting for the first time. Suddenly the image of a deck of cards appeared on his HUD. "What the heck is this?" As he tried to figure out what the icon was, X's attention was turned to the outside of the tunnel by a large shadow. It was serpentine in nature, an alligator or crocodile like body with numerous spikes on it's back crackling with electricity. _'What the heck is that?'_

As the beast passed over the tunnel, six more armored troopers came in, two colored red with flamethrowers, and one yellow with a pink energy shield on one arm. "It's the Crimson Striker! Open fire!"

Zero swiped the card icon away as he jumped back continuously to avoid the very slow gunfire, putting the large gun on the magnetic pad on his back where he kept his old Z-Buster. _'Odd.'_ He thought as he stare at the guns. _'The energy blast from those guns is similar to my Buster. Which means if I get one of those guns and pour my own energy into it's core..'_ He smiled as he heard a large hum emenating from the weapon. "Perfect." He got as far as the other end of the tunnel before opening fire. With the energy poured into the gun, a single large beam, almost as big as his body, shot out of the gun and at the troops.

"Nice try!" The shield troop yelled, getting in front of the group and extending his energy shield to block and absorb the shot. "Bette luck next time, Crimson Striker!" The energy blast hit the shield, causing a massive amount of smoke from the impact, blinding the troops. "We learned our lesson from the power plant! And don't even think of using the smoke to get the jump on us! We laced the energy beams of our shots with Energen absorbing particles! Stay in here too long, and you'll start losing your energy!" The smoke began to clear. "And with the energy in this shield, I can-"

"He's gone."

The shield trooper shrunk his shield back to it's default size to find that yes, Zero had run away. "Son of a bitch...AFTER HIM!"


	2. Renewal Part 2

A young teenage boy was running for his life, a white laptop in his hand as he ran across the rooftops. He had pale green hair, a thin ponytail with darker green eyes, with bangs swept over his right eye. He wore a green zip-up jumper under a white coat, both of which had the sleeves rolled up, blue jeans, also rolled up, and black boots. He was Teseo, and right now he was currently on the run from Nova Tsukiyomi. Thankfully, the Sumeragi Adept's powers were on the fritz as well, or at the very least he didn't want to activate his Glaives. Either reason was probably why he was having his fancy limo chase Teseo down while Nova himself floated above the buildings with a transceiver on his ear to tt

" _Holyshitholyshitholyshit!"_ Teseo was not like his rival Merak. He could actually fight worth a damn and was a red belt in Krav Maga. Tenjian and Gibril made sure all members of the G7 were physically fit and able to fight with their fists should their Adept powers fail for whatever reason. At least, that's what his Septima was telling him, because the only exercise he ever got with the G7 was running for his life from Gibril for putting a 'you must be this tall to ride' sign in front of her room. Teseo's Septima, Hack the Planet, was one of the strongest Septimas out there, giving him the ability to warp reality at near omnipotent levels, along with a powerful beam he had been working on dubbed the Cyberizer, able to turn a large area into a digital zone, killing anything that caught in the beam. It was for this reason Zonda-sama forbade him from using it unless he had explicit permission, as the beam could even kill her. At it's weakest, and right now it was _very_ weak, it was a souped up fusion of Twitter and Facebook, allowing the G7 and Eden to have a mobile communication network with him as administrator. As such, he was aware of any changes to the network, and even as he ran like the devil was chasing him, he was constantly receiving update after update, each and every one of them filled with terminology and code he had never seen before; words like 'Reploid', 'Biometal', and the fact Sumeragi was partnered with a French government called Neo Arcadia.

"What the hell is going on?!" He yelled as he jumped to the next building, dodging psychic waves sent by Nova. He didn't even know how he got back to Japan! He was in Tashkent using Zonda-sama's report as a chance to hack Sumeragi's Datacenter when all of a sudden he was blinded by a green light and landed straight onto the car of Sumeragi's strongest adept! He couldn't risk contacting any of the Eden members in Japan; they were undercover, and barely any of them had a Septima that was as strong as him in his current state. Plus, he was the only member of Eden aside from Zonda who could teleport so that meant-

" _Zonda-sama."_ He completely forgot about her! Her Septima, Phantasm Mirror, was even stronger than his Septime, and because of the way it worked, affected her personality greatly. With his Adept abilities on the fritz, he didn't even want to think how her powers would affect her. Any amount of time spent with her would tell you that the personality she took in her Septimal form was _not_ an act, which made being around her during training sessions incredibly unbearable for everyone in the G7. While in her male and female adult forms, she would not stop making _every_ single wordan innuendo, at times very loudly and obviously showing her love of being hit, or waking up in the beds of various Eden members in one of her forms. Who knows how this anomaly would affect her Septimal self? He shuddered in horror as his mind thought of the possible scenarios, none of them involving her adult girl form with a hottie.

"I suggest you don't try to use your Septima, Teseo-san." Nova said, floating above him. The second you made a run for it, I ordered my men to place a version of Firmament's upgraded firewall over the entire area. You're not going anywhere." Suddenly a pink rectangle that shined like a mirror appeared under Teseo, who dropped into it. "Then again, maybe you are." The rectangle disappeared. Nova put a hand to his ear. "This is Nova. It's just like you theorized. Zonda's been bugging our systems. It's the only way Teseo could get into our country and bypass our barrier." _Why_ he was here was something he would leave up to the interrogators to find out. Nova chuckled as the man on the other end voiced his concerns. "Don't worry. If your theory on her during her psych eval was on the money, then we'll know exactly where she'll be."... "What.. who is Mino Magnus?"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Teseo landed on the other side of Zonda's Phantom Mirror, falling on a mattress. "Oh thank god!" He said with relief. "Thank you Zonda-sama!"

"My sweet little Otaku!" Zonda yelled, thankfully in her female form. "It's so good to see you in good spirits!"

"..."

" I was worried you would meet your demise at the hands of that ghastly Nova!" She let out a light sob. "Oh, to see someone who rejects love for duty. Some would say that's admirable, but I-"

"Zonda-sama!" Teseo yelled, to tired and confused to act normally. "Why did you blow your cover like that?! You were supposed to use your monthly report to the Glaive Control Center to open up a comm line so I could hack into their systems! Those Grimorire prototypes won't work if I don't have more data!"

"Alas, my early reveal was not my intent! My cover has been blown away, like petals in a lovely breeze! A flash of lovingly blinding green light flashed before my eyes, temporarily reverting me to my true, adorable form, right in front of the Glaive Control Center's manager! Who would feel such fear and revulsion at such a cute little girl like myself?"

Teseo looked away nervously. You do _not_ recruit Adepts like Gibril and him to your cause by appealing to their strife and suffering. You appeal to their love of technology and love of killing and maiming respectively. The fact that he met Zonda-sama on a _hentai_ forum (probably scouting him out) and the fact she talked so blatantly, inhumanly about the death of humanity and the rise of Adepts as rulers of the world would have horrified a normal man, especially the sexual way she put it. but Teseo was not a norman man; he was a super nerd with internet powers, and by god the way she worded it was convincing enough for him to join her cause...granted, she thought she was talking to _Gibril,_ but still, the way Zonda could get into your head was _frightening._

"But that shouldn't have been a problem. You could have just told the truth about your true form and said you preferred looking like an adult, and those suits wouldn't be hounding you! They're the only organization that hires middle schoolers to run military grade gear, they would've bought it!"

"If only that were true, my lovely lackey!" She said, clutching her chest and moaning. "But unfortunately, fate is a cruel mistress, and she has dealt me a familiar, unlucky hand! Do you remember my beautiful interdimensional adventure where I was pulled into a retro video game and fought the most _adorable_ robot boy who could absorb his foes?"

"We both agreed to never talk about that ." That was one of the _strangest_ things either of them had experienced. It did give them a good idea on who that Copen kid was though and what to expect from him. And it still baffled Teseo why Zonda-sama liked that Beck kid so much! The guy never closed his goddamn mouth! It didn't even _move_ when he talked!

"Of course I did! My darling brother would die if he heard I had a crush on someone! He's quite overprotective of me, after all!"

 _'More like he's protecting them from you.'_ He shuddered as he recollected the last time Zonda-sama in her child form had a crush on someone. "...So how does this relate to Sumeragi chasing us?

"...Oh yes, I completely forgot about that!" Teseo groaned in frustration. "Anyway, as me and that cute little Gunvolt boy were fighting, we noticed that our Septima were not feeling the love! It felt as restrictive an stiff as the dimension we were trapped in ! The poor Gunvolt dear couldn't even use his painfully hot Prevasion of his, and I couldn't even use my mirrors to wow and dazzle him!" She sighed happily. "What's happening now feels just like that wondrous, lovely adventure! Cold, intrusive love, binding the Septima of Adepts like us once again!"

"Great, next you'll be telling me that stupid angel's gonna pop out of nowhere again." His crush on his once darling Ekoro-chan had disappeared quite fast after busting Zonda-sama out of that dimension, which was no easy featl requiring hacking into Sumeragi once again out of desperation to get the help of the wormhole user/fellow nerd; enemies or not, the prospect of seeing and touching real titties bought everyone together. That, and Merak had to get Zonda-sama and the other Swordsman trapped in the dimension, meaning Teseo had to make a very convincing lie as to why he wanted to help, and touching angel tits was a good excuse for something like him.

...And then Ekoro beat the ever living crap out of him, saying she was able to sense his 'creepiness' and no amount of pheromones would help him in his love life. That was the end of that crush. "So another dimensional anomaly is affecting the world again?"

"Why YES!" Zonda fell to the ground dramatically. "And the binding feeling is back and it feels sooooo much _better_ now! It feels as though I've been split apart!"

 _'So that explains why you haven't changed genders.'_

"Unfortunately however, our time is up. I would tell you more, but alas, we must wait for our comrades to rescue us!" Before Teseo could ask what she meant, what looked like a large, grey Minotaur in purple rounded armor, pink mohawk, and shades straight out of the disco era in America and a magnet symbol on it's chest busted through the ceiling, with floating green haired man in Sumeragi armor flying behind him.

"I...found...you..." The minotaur said, very, _very_ slowly, breathing heavily in-between every word. "Teseo...lord of the code... you..."

"You are under arrest for crimes against the glorious Sumeragi and the City-State of Neo Arcadia!" The Green man interrupted. "I, Jota, the Shining Sentinel, and he, Mino Magnus of the Eight Warriors of Neo Arcadia, place both you and Zonda of the Swordsman under arrest for crimes of treason against both the Japanese and Europoean Democratic Republic of Neo Arcadia! Magnus-san!" The minotaur robot raised his arm, summoning an axe bigger than his head in a flash of electricity. Suddenly, Teseo and Zonda floated in the air and slammed straight into the flat end of the axe. "Good job, fellow soldier! Now follow me back to Nova-sama to arrest these traitors!"

"Ok..." Magnus watched as Jota flew away. "Who..was...that?" Miss Alouette told him to listen to the nice flying man, but he just kept talking and _talking_ wouldn't _shut up_ about Sumeragi! Because of the magnets in his systems, Magnus had trouble speaking, or thinking in general, leaving his actions in control of an onboard NetNavi most of the time. Because of this, he couldn't simply slapped the talking man to shut him up, and had to endure him talking about Japan and Sumeragi like he was some hick tourist!

"GET ME OFF OF HERE!" Teseo screamed.

"Oh yes, you're such a beautiful beast! Swing my limber, nubile body!"

Magnus slammed them into a wall. "Shut...up..." He jumped down into the streets below with the intent following the annoying talking man, Teseo screaming in fear and Zonda...well you wouldn't exactly call that screaming. However, the streets were not made with the intent of supporting a machine as heavy as him, and he fell straight through the pavement and into the sewers. "Oh..no.." Miss Alouette was going to kill him _again_! That'd be the fifth time this week !

"This suuccks." Teseo said dazedly. If he was paying attention or if Magnus had some level of intelligence, they would have picked up on Zonda's form flickering in and out, turning a bright, almost mirror like pink before returning back to normal.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Out of all of Sumeragi's strongholds and facilities, Seat Base was the most technologically impressive and the most imposing in terms of scale. Named by Sumeragi officer Merak at the time of it's opening, Seat Base was a large undersea colony/military base that started out from a hollowed out volcano under Japan's oceans and extended over 200 miles with the help of the European Democratic Republic of Neo Arcadia. Over 30 undersea buildings were built to support whatever either nation needed, and since this was a joint venture, there were Neo Arcadian personell at the facility, lead by a Reploid co-commander that shared power with Merak.

She was of the Einherjar, one of the eight warriors that answered directly to the Neo Arcadian ruling council, second only to the Two Guardians in military power. As per the offical charter on Reploid frames which dictated what bodies Reploids could have, the Einherjar were allowed to choose what body type or gender they wanted and could change them at any time. This Einherjar, Sol Titanion, chose that of a 6 foot tall European woman that looked to be a youthful 28 years old, with waist length honey blonde hair that had two fist sized hair buns on both sides of her head wrapped in red metal casing and two brown insect antenna sticking out of the front, Her armor was an old, Adept Wars design, which meant large orange leg armor and toeless feet. She had an orange jumpsuit under the armor, a butterfly themed chest armor with a fire pattern on the front and a cleavage window on top, large, orange gauntlets with transparent, orange glowing hands, with jets projecting large, flaming wings on the sides of the gauntlets.

Titanion was known for two things: flaunting her body (given how much she paid for it she sure as hell was gonna do it) and being anal retentive when it came to the work ethic of those who served under her, and that included the humans and Adepts Sumeragi gave her. Quite the frigid bitch for a fire elemental. Her office was the best looking room in Seat Base's military sector; large and circular, metal painted a calming ocean blue with five windows in each corner of the room showing the ocean outside. A large, shark shaped projector was on the ceiling, and the floor was a soft plush blue carpet that felt so good, you could sleep on it. Between working for her or Merak, many of those working in Seat Base chose her, mostly because she was hot, but mostly because she wouldn't warp you into a pool of lava if you pissed the lazy bastard off. That, and you didn't have to call Sumeragi home office to get your damn check with her.

"ZERO'S IN MY BASE?!"

that didn't mean being _around_ her was any better. She sat at her blue, seashell themed desk, staring at the soldiers on the holo screens above her with fury. "HOW?! HOW DID HE GET HERE?! THERE'S ONLY _ONE_ TRANSERVER IN THIS ENTIRE GODFORSAKEN FACILITY, AND I SURE AS HELL'D KNOW IF ANYONE USED THAT!" Now that she thought about it, that cloaked figure that used the Transerver to break in still hadn't made her goals known. She really should find out who that was before anything important was stolen or broken.

"W-well, he took the elevator and-"

"BULLSHIT! WE HAVE FIVE MANTIS UNITS STATIONED OUT AT THE SURFACE ENTRANCE, NOT TO MENTION THE REPLOID-PROOF DOOR THAT MEMORY WIPES ANY UNAUTHORIZED VISITORS! I CAN'T EVEN GET INTO THE BASE THAT WAY!"

"I don't know how he did it either! He must've cloaked-"

"Finish that sentence and you're demoted." Titanion warned. "I don't tolerate stupidity in those under my employ. We all know Zero's systems are incompatible with modern cloaking technology. If he _did_ try to use cloaking tech, you would've found him in the elevator on the floor with his brainfried like a CD-ROM under a magnet, or at the very least glitched out." Zero was the only top agent of QUILL that could always be detected, the blonde's body far too old for most modern cloaking technologies. The only way to do so was to use one of those cloaking fields but that would require an Adept with an extradordinary Septima to power one small enough to fit over a-

"One more thing." One of the other soldiers said. "When we were recovering the soldiers he beat up, they said he took one of their guns to attack them with. Stranger still, he didn't have any holsters on his legs. Commander John of the Shield Battalion said he must have used his own core to power the gun blast that he used to distract them while he made his escape."

"Interesting.." Titanion said with a smile. There was only one recorded instance in Sumeragi's database of Zero doing such a thing; it was when he couldn't use his own energy to power his own onboard weapons. And if her hunch was right about the Adept, she can use him to lead her first intruder right into a trap. "So if he can't use his weapons and had to use one of yours, he's running on empty! Have you found Merak yet?"

One of the officers shook his head. "Merak-sama is still MIA. We haven't been able to track him due to interference topside. We can't get any transmissions in our outside the entire colony."

"God damn it.." Titanion muttered, getting out of her seat. "Guess this means I'll have to deal with Zero myself. You idiots know where he is?"

"Thirtieth floor of the main building. He's in the civilian secti-" The soldier stopped talking from the glare Titanion was giving him.

"So...you let him get into the _civilian_ SECTOR?!" The soldiers visibly winced from her volume. "YOU IDIOTS!"

"B-but the Crimson Striker isn't a threat to civilians-"

"Yeah, but do you think the _civilians_ know that?! He's like goddamn spiderman and everyone's J Jonah Jameson!"

"W-wha-"

"Nevermind, screw it. The fuck is wrong with you guys? There's an enemy on the damn base and you didn't lock down the area where you kept the civilians, which I remind you, are _human_?!"

"We apologize for our lack of competence, Titanion-sama!" One of the soldiers proclaimed. "Merak-sama left us to our own devices and cancelled our training program because he said-"

"Too much work for him, I bet. Gonna roast that fucking brat when I find him. You idiots don't do a thing, you're on break. I'll find him myself and do _your jobs_ myself!" She snapped her fingers, causing the screen to disappear. "How is it that the pedophilic hothead has more competent troops than the goddamn supergenius?!" She took one look at the door and smirked. _'Really? Listening outside my door and not even planting a listening device? Pitiful.'_ She then disappeared in a burst of flame, missing the serpentine figure outside her window that crackled with electricity.

'So that's what's going on.' The intruder muttered to herself, a horde of E-crystals in her hand as she stood at the door, invisible to the naked eye. 'I don't know why you're here Zero-sama, but that's a question you'll have to answer when Asimov-sama finds out.' For now, she had to get back to her room with these crystals. Thanks to that little bug she put into the system when she first got here, she could track Titanion's usage of the Transerver network. If she found Zero, the figure would know, and when Titanion put Zero in a cell for later, she'll be there to bust him out. She ran to her room, resisting the urge to snicker. _'Idiot doesn't even know I'm tracking her!'_


	3. Renewal part 3

Combat Reploids were more advanced than civilian Reploids. They had faster processing units, which meant they could handle the mental strain of having multiple weapon systems active and manually managing the energy flow, as leaving it up to the Reploid's brain could easily lead to system errors if for whatever reason a Reploid needs an immense amount of RAM, and manual operation of the weapons system prevents the possibility of an virus attack. Upgrading a civilian Reploid to combat status meant a complete personality rehaul due to the amount of processing units that needed to be added for the weapons systems, and if they were being upgraded to work with a stealth unit, the brain would have to be reconditioned and remodeled to work with multiple visual spectrums at once and having a pitch perfect memory. As a result, upgrading civilian Reploids was illegal for fear of them turning Maverick from the change, and was only allowed in the most dire of circumstances. And since combat Reploids had more software and hardware to work with, this meant that they had emergency subsystems to keep the more important systems from either failing or succumbing to hacking or viral infection.

"So... much... static.."The above problems were highly prevalent in combat Reploids if energy levels drop below satisfactory levels. For a Reploid like Zero, this meant that power wasn't being chanelled properly to the necessary systems, and as such his limbs felt incredibly numb, and he could see nothing but static with just a faint outline of the area... that goddamn deck icon was back and _wouldn't get out of his way!_ The intrusive system updates t greatly changed his firmware as well, and just a few minutes ago he could read the basic information on them, because for _some_ reason he didn't have administrative privileges to access these files; the one who did was named 'Lola' or something. The filenames were weird: Airswrd1, Wideswrd, Longswrd, and a text file on Program Advances, and under the creator tab under all of them was the name 'Dr. Kamizono'. . The good news was that the updates screwing with his systems caused his Transerver Retrieval Unit to go offline, something he always had Ciel do manually whenever he needed to do a covert operation; this meant that the soldiers wouldn't be able to track him unless they saw him physically.

He was being led to who knows where by X. They were in a large hallway with a plush red carpet, a window to the ocean outside on the right with a painted wall on the left. Lots of places to run around in, which meant jack since his Dash and Wall Jump were offline, and double jack if that Merak came into the base to deal with him. He must have been a truly intelligent and powerful foe if he could run a colony this large.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"MY EARS!" Merak yelled as the Tigrex let out a roar, the people screaming and running not helping in the slightest. "Why won't this stupid chair work?!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"How much energy do you have left?" X asked, leading Zero down the hallway. He narrowed his eyes as he watched a shadow pass by the window, this one more fish-like than the serpentine figure from last time. _'What kind of creature could survive at this depth?'_

"22%." Zero said. "Speech and auditory functions are still working properly, but I'm incredibly numb. Isn't there a kitchen around here? My ability to recharge with human food is still functional."

"There are several, but they won't do you any good. Because of the massive food shortages following the Elf Wars, we switched to an artificial nutritional supplement for both humans and Reploids. While I was in their network, I checked the lunch and dinner schedules for the employees, checked what the civilian visitors were allowed to bring in, and any contraband tat hadn't been disposed of. There's nothing except the Energen in the reactor that can refuel you."

"Ciel said something similar to that when I raided that old power plant the first time. She said she had to synthesize the E-Crystals to be compatible with my systems."

"We moved to a different form of E-Crystals following the first 20 years of Neo Arcadia. We did something similar for the humans, too. Fatty foods became far more expensive due to the extinction of animals such as the cow and chicken, and as such we had to resort to artificial dietary supplements to feed the human populace. You hid in Neo Arcadia for a long time before you went to the desert. You _did_ notice that there wasn't a single big breasted of slightly overweight human in Neo Arcadia while you escaped Area X, right?"

A world without breasts...it was so horrifying that Zero changed the subject. "How much further until we reach the reactor?"

"Well, given the speed you're going at, at least an hour." Zero and X turned around to see a busty Reploid with a Caucasian frame hovering in the air, standing on a flat circle of fire. "Then again, you'd probably go into Emergency Shutdown with the amount of energy you have."

Zero looked around. "Who said-"

"Firewall." A large fire square appeared above Zero, landing on him before he could even hear X's pleas for him to move. All of a sudden his systems shut down, one by one as his body couldn't take the heat in it's weakened state.

"ZERO!"

"Well, that was dissapointingly easy." Titanion said, her radar picking up the intruder with the cloaking field. "But it makes my job easier. Don't know what possessed you to come down here without a weapon or even a SubTank, but I'll leave it up to the lazy idiot to figure it out." She turned to the direction of the cloaked figure as it turned the corner, causing the intruder to flinch. Titanion pretended to look around before shrugging and turning to Zero. "Huh, must've been my imagination. Oh well, to the jail cell with you!" X went into Zero's processor before it shut down as Titanion and Zero disappeared in a burst of flame.

.

 _'NO!'_ The cloaked figure stomped her foot in anger.. _'I'm too late!'_ Her entire mission had to be changed now. _'Why did Zero-sama come here?!'_ This was _her_ mission, her chance to shine without his presence, and what does he do? Come over a thousand feet underwater, no weapons, low energy, and for what?! Well he's gonna answer that when she got her hands on him! And then she'll give him to Asimov-sama, and hoo boy will he be mad!

But there was a problem: Titanion. The Einherjar was acting way too suspicious. She had tracked the Reploid for over 30 minutes as she went from sector to sector, the figure using the Dash function in her boots to keep up until she found Titanion. _'Could she be messing with me?'_ She shook her head. _'No, no, it couldn't be. She probably was busy doing maintenance if that enemy chatter was correct.'_ She hoped that was the case because right now she had no options left to her. Communication with the surface was impossible at the moment, which meant getting Zeno or Asimov-sama down here was not happening. Her best bet was to bust Zero out of the jail cell and hopefully avoid a fight with the Einherjar. _'She'll probably put him into a Reploid holding cell so Merak can dissect him. Unconscious or not, he's still Zero-sama. I wouldn't even trust him in that state.'_

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Nova found out who Mino Magnus was.

"Mister...Nova..."

...And he was a cartoon bull straight out of an American cartoon from the 80s, and judging by the way he was speaking may have potential mental retardation. Jota flew to Nova on the building and landed with a bow. "Nova-sama, we have apprehended the traitors."

"T-thank you..." Nova just _stared_ at Magnus as Jota continued his report. He looked so out of place, what the hell was he looking at?! Out of all the things Nova expected to see as a result of this dimensional anomaly, he didn't expect to see this. _'One of my Glaive is nearly broken, and yet I feel no increase in power, I gained breasts for a few minutes, my chaffeur spent those minutes groping me, and now there's a cartoon bull with Zonda and Teseo strapped to an axe staring at the sky like he had an epiphany.'_ He lout out a large sigh. _'I'm going to have a migraine by the time I get home.'_ Magnus's axe flickered in and out of every few seconds. _'Oh great, the axe is an energy construct._ _That's going to irk me later, I just know it.'_

"-And we finished our sweep of the area." Oh that's right, Jota was still talking. "I sent troops into three Eden warehouses and we encountered no resistance. They probably didn't expect to be found out so easily."

"Uh huh..." He couldn't get over the cartoon bull! It just looked so...off! "I-I apologize Jota san, but...my Glaive...the damage to it has affected my memory quite substantially...Could you please tell me about that mentally chall-I mean strange creature with the axe?"

"Of course!" Jota said with a salute, Magnus slamming Teseo into the wall for funsies "Mino Magnus is a former geological assistant from Neo Arcadia and is now a member of the Einherjar warriors!"

 _'Better keep this short.'_ Nova thought, his psychic senses telling him something was going to happen the longer he stayed here. He'd just get the general info and just look on Sumeragi's database on everything else. "And what, pray tell is this 'Neo Arcadia'?"

"Neo Arcadia was a coalition government established in the early 2100's to control the ever growing Adept and Maverick population!"

"Bigger...than you..." Magnus said.

Jota sighed. "Yes, he is right. Neo Arcadia's territory includes _all_ of Europe. Because of all the patents they've made in their development of Reploid technology and Asia's economic slump, Sumeragi had to borrow billions in Yen from them, and as such, we are in massive debt to them. Because of this, they own 55% of Nihon and 66% of South America."

"I see.."Nova said in distaste. _'Well, this bit of news has just ruined my day.'_ Especially these 'Mavericks' and the fact they owned the continent where the first Adept appeared. He had the feeling he wanted to be calm and relaxed before he looked up any of that. "So what did we get out of this arrangement from this Neo Arcadia?"

"I do not know." Jota answered. "That information is classified and I do not have the clearance. Only you, as the 455th head of Sumeragi, are-"

"What?!" Nova felt a migraine coming on. "How?!" Loyal to Sumeragi as he was, even he didn't hold delusions that he could become leader of the organization, let alone a member of the board of directors. Well to tell the truth he _did,_ along with maybe one or two traitorous feelings that came once in a blue moon as a result of the experiments Sumeragi peformed on him. but that's what the three Glaives were for.

"You memory must be worse than I thought." Jota muttered. "You became Sumeragi's leader thanks to Neo Arcadia. You exposed a money laundering scheme involving those in charge of Project Gunvolt thanks in help to Dr. Kamizono."

 _'Migraine...big migraine..."_

" You were given the position as a joke, mostly out of spite for the former leaders. They honestly expected you to cow to their demands but thanks to your leadership, we have been on good terms with Neo Arcadia, even at the economic disadvantage we are at. It was thanks to your negotiation skills and the vice president managing our foreign branches that Seat Base- that's the undersea colony made by our two nations that is lead by Merak-sama and Titanion-sama, was completed so fast."

 _'At least Merak-san's naming theme hasn't changed.'_ Nova thought, taking some solace in the small comfort. He needed to get in contact with him. If his hunch was correct, then there was a reason Merak was the only one aside from him that remembered what the world was like before those lights changed everything. _'And that vice president...with how things have been going, I'd probably be sharing power with one of those terrorists from QUILL!'_ He chuckled at the unexpected thought. _'Hah, like that would ever happen.'_

"Look..." Magnus said, pointing to the west. "Big..light.."

"Again?" Nova moved about to cover his eyes when all of a sudden Jota came in front of him to block the light. _'How come they noticed_ _ **this**_ _l_ _ight?! Jota-san didn't even bat an eye when I changed genders!'_ Now that he thought about it, Jota didn't even realize that happened!

"Again with this?!" Jota exclaimed, his Sumeragi enhanced eyes protecting him from the intensity. Magnus just stared at the light, his optics burning. "Nova-sama get back!"

"What is that light, Jota-san?!"

"It's the Aegis Wormhole, the main focus of your 'Diva Project!' _…._ Nova was starting to get an intimate understanding Merak's life philosophies. "I don't understand why it's acting up now, though. There wasn't supposed to be another flareup for another 3 days!"

A loud roar echoed throughout the city. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Teseo screamed as his Septima continued giving him updates "YOU GUYS HAVE GODDAMN TIGREXES NOW?!"

"A Tigrex?" Nova repeated. He remembered revoking Merak's gaming privileges one time during his early days at Sumeragi, and he complained about 'almost killing the Tigrex.' "Great.. _'_ his head was pounding now, an obvious vein throbbing on his head. ' _So let's see if I have this straight! The Diva Project that I spent weeks planning has changed to something beyond anything I could've imagined, I'm the head of the_ _ **formerly**_ _most powerful company in Asia, Europe's in the control of a new government, scratch that, Europe_ _ **isn't**_ _an economic cesspool and apparently isn't just Russia and parts of China now, and to top it all off, the very origin of my powers might have been changed completely!'_

"Sir, I'm sensing Merak-san is near! He's around 20 seconds away, no...10 seconds!"

Nova was about to comment on Merak's speed when all of a sudden the Slothful Conjurer appeared right behind him, falling to the ground and panting heavily as his armor disengaged. "Oh thank god!" He yelled in relief. "I..*wheeze*..I.." He let out one more wheeze before he passed out as the sound of incoming missiles filled the air.

"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Nova yelled as he grabbed Merak and flew away to another building, Jota doing the same and Magnus leaping onto a building, the roof collapsing under his weight as the missiles made impact, wiping out a massive section of the city and leaving a massive crater, killed hundreds if not thousands despite Nova putting up a purple shield. "Ha...Ha.." Nova nearly collapsed on the roof he was on. "H-how." He had to release _two_ Glaives to block that. He knew his strengths and weaknesses, and while he could buy that he'd need to release a Glaive to block a missile strike that large, it shouldn't have weakened him this much after releasing two of his Glaives, nor should said strike have bypassed his barrier! "All those people...dead...Have I..grown weaker in this dimension?" As he contemplated this a thought came to him.

"Zonda.." He was attached to Magnus's axe when the giant bull fell through the building! Considering the fact Sse didn't try to use her mirror Septima to escape, it was safe to assume that axe negated one's Septima, like Carrera's Magnetic Arts. And given that the axe was made of energy, it was also safe to assume that the construct had disappeared when Magnus fell, like most energy constructs when they suffer a large blow. "JOTA-SAN!" Immediately the Shining Sentinel was at his master's side. "Find Magnus and make sure Teseo and Zonda are with him!"

"RIGHT!" Jota disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Nova alone as a giant red beast lunged at him from the smoke. Irritated, the psychic used a good chunk of power to push it into a ruined building. _'So... that's a... Tigrex.'_ He thought as he watched it thrash angrily through the rubble. ' _Quite the violent creature.'_ Once again, like many times in the past when his subordinates angered him, he was very glad Sumeragi decided to repress his more negative personality traits with his Glaives, because he was pretty sure if he was going all out, he would just wipe out the entire city Clamator Aetherus. Heck, he might just go all out right now; pointless as it may be in his weakened state, he just wanted this day _done_!

Nova-sama! Jota's voice exclaimed over Nova's comm device. Zonda and Teseo..they're gone!Nova sighed in frustration. _'Of course they got away!'_ Magnus is too damaged and has gone offline! _'That bull was a robot?!'_ I can't get in touch with our main offices either!

"Urgghh, fine. Get back here and-" The Tigrex roared, causing Nova to hiss in pain from the volume. "-help me take care of this creature..." He finished with an angry wince of pain as Jota appeared by his side. " Jota-san, I'm weak now. Very, very weakened." Jota gasped. "Can you injure this creature?"

"I can try.."

"Not good enough. How far are we from the nearest base?"

"220 miles."

"...And how long until any mechs get here?"

"33 minutes."

Nova just stared at the Tigrex, taking a deep breath and sighing. "Alright then. I will have to follow your lead in defeating this creature until Merak-san wakes up. We need to get rid of this thing before it blows up another heavily populated area."

"Right!" Jota flew above Nova and split into four transparent copies of himself. The drones on the Jotas's backs disengaged and flew above him, aimed at the Tigrex. Nova simply shot out purple orbs from his hands at the Tigrex while it recovered. He wasn't going to risk doing anything else other than run interference and distraction until he was sure his Septima hadn't changed in other aspects.

 _'Those are weaker too!'_ He thought angrily as he saw what little impact it caused. The speed at which they were _supposed_ to go at should have blown the smoke away!

"Energy charged!" All five Jotas yelled simultaneously, pointing their fingers at the Tigrex. "LUMINOUS RAIN!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Seat Base's Reploid jail center was that of a typical Sumeragi holding facility, only the walls were a bright blue with purple lights instead of an imposing dark purple with blinding red lights. Each jail cell could hold at least 6 people and had a three point security system; the first were the metal bars , followed by a blue energy shield that gave the unfortunate prisoner who touched it an electric jolt similar to six military grade tasers, with a metal door inbetween the bars and shield. A bit awkward, but the jail was made in a rush

As Titanion walked into the prison, she was talking to a Sumeragi worker via her internal comm device, Zero behind her on a floating bed of fire.

"You haven't found the little masturbator yet?!" Titanion screeched over her internal communications device as she carelessly threw Zero into a jail cell like a sack of potatoes, the red robot making a hard thud from the impact as the doors closed. "He's a lazy nerd _and_ works for the company that owns your asses! Even if you can't track him, there's like what, three places he could be?! Go check Akihabara or something that's where the losers go, right?!"

W-we apologize, Titanion-sama Her auditory victim stuttered, shivering in fear of the fire breathing robot. B-but the dimensional wormhole just released a monster from Minegarde again!

"..." The Sumeragi worker could _feel_ Titanion's silently growing anger, even with the hundred mile distance between them. "Okie dokie. So are you _sure_ it was just _a_ monster?"

Yes. Our scanners picked up just one. The worker sighed, a hint of anger in his voice from being talked to like this. Then again, we haven't had our equipment updated in a while. Merak- _sama_ He said the honorific with sheer hatred in his tone. _D_ ecided we're all idiots one day- _'Took him_ _ **that**_ _long to realize that?'_ -So he decided he would be in charge of monitoring the portal. Yes, we understood how stupid that was, but he has the power to send anyone he doesn't like anywhere he wants, and none of us want to end up like the last person that told him what to do.

"...Ok, that's a fair point." Titanion said, her antenna standing ramrod straight as her armor began glowing. _'So she actually followed me all the way down here.'_ She thought, her back camera recording the cloaked figure with the invisibility field. "Ok, Tim-"

It's Takiyama.

"Whatever. Considering the level of work you've done under Merak's command, I'll see if I can get you transferred contact to the Biochemical Plant or something. I'm in quite the good mood!" The worker was confused at her sudden generosity and calm tone, but didn't say anything. "Now if you excuse me, I have to get to one of the communications tower to make sure there isn't anything swimming down here!" With that, she cut the line and disappeared in a burst of flame.

The cloaked figure disengaged her invisibility field, "Thank goodness."She whispered, sighing with relief. "I thought she actually found out I was trailing her!" Thankfully Titanion had to use a Transerver to get around the base. She can teleport from anywhere in the base, but she could only choose specific areas as her destination point, which made it easy for the figure to track her and Zero. This also meant she had to waste time going to the other destination points on the off chance Titanion suspected she was being tracked. "Oh, Asimov-sama's gonna give it to you good when we get back, Zero-sama!" She walked down the hall, standing in front of the cell Zero was in. "A manual lock...can't hack this." She could sense some sort of electrical current coming from the right and pouring into the lock. If she tried to use her Septima on the thing, she would overload the current, doing absolutely nothing to the lock and would only serve to get her swarmed by Soldiers and roasted by Titanion. She ignored her unconscious partner and turned right, looking for the other alternative she had planned.

 _'According to the map, the control center for the jail should be down this hall..'_ She stopped in front of a door labelled 'Jail surveillance and control' on the top. She put her ear close to the door. _'No one inside. Can't sense any Mechanaloids active. Ok...I'm gonna risk it.'_ She put a hand to the electronic card lock and with her other hand, she reached inside her cloak and pulled out a blue feather, crackling with electricity. She stuck the feather into the card slot and activated her Septima, pouring electricity into the lock until the door opened and she walked inside.

The control room was large and rectangular, with one floor below her and a hover-elevator leading to it on the side. She walked towards her target, the large, multi-monitored computer above a small flight of stairs. Blue lights shined from the shadows concealing her face as she looked at the images on the monitor. _'Ok, the cell number should be on the monitors. 45, 55, 66...'_ It didn't take her long to find Zero, crumpled up on the floor like a limp ragdoll. _'Room 67!'_ There was the sound of people talking in a room above, probably the workers on break. She didn't know how long her cloak's batteries would hold out, and the fact there were two Monsters outside the base ready to destroy the base was not making her feel any better. She walked up to the terminal, performing the same trick she used on the panel on the computers. "Ok, just have to find the right current.." She sniffed the air as a stench tickled her nose. "What's that smell." Suddenly a large jolt shot through her arm. "YEOWCH!" She jumped back, smoke coming from her hand and the keyboard as the feather crumpled to dust. Her cloaked form became visible to the world for only a few seconds before the cloaking field reactivated. "Too much power!" Well at least she found the current, so all she'd have to do is try again and-

"Did you hear something?" She heard voice from the floor above shout.

"Yeah it sounded like an explosion!"

"That means we have an intruder, you idiots! Get down there _now_!"

The security alarm began to blare loudly, the entire jail facility filling with blinking red lights. _'Time to go!'_ Seeing as her cover was blown, she shot electricity into the computer again, this time interacting with the correct current, opening up not only Zero's cell but _all_ of the cells before running out of the room. As she neared Zero's cell. she channelled electricity into her boots and shot it out of her shoes, causing her feet to leave the ground and increase her speed as she grabbed the corners of the cell and swung herself into it, reactivating her cloaking field just as Sumeragi gun troops came rushing into the prison from the control room.

"All right men, search the cells!" Said one of the troopers, presumably the captain. "The intruder's gotta be in here somewhere!"

 _'Too bad you jerks won't find me.'_ She tiptoed to the side of the door as three Sumeragi soldiers piled in.

"

"Do you see anything?"

"Nope." The soldier went to Zero and kicked him. "Just this bucket of bolts" He kicked him again. "Killed my best bud last year you son of a-" the other soldiers held him back.

"Come on, let's go. seriously, we have Reploids working for us, you need to cut that racist crap out." The soldiers left, closing the door behind them. But the figure didn't let down her Cloakfield.She waited until they were done, twenty-five grueling minutes which included multiple searches of the cell she and Zero were, standing perfectly still until the soldiers finished their search and left the prison, the cell doors closing once again.

"Finally..." She muttered as her Cloakfield's batteries ran out. She looked to Zero. "You're going to owe me for this. Now where is that stupid thing...?" She sifted through her cloak, grumbling until she found what she was looking for. "There we go!" She pulled out an energy pistol and pointed it at Zero with one hand, a handful of E-crystals tightly packed into her other hand. The gun began making a loud hum as the E-crystals dimmed and disappeared from her hand, the hum increasing volume/ "That should be enough.." It was only enough energy to get him up and running. Any more would cause the electricity in the prison to short out, just for a second, but enough to get the Soldiers running back in, or in the worst case scenario, getting Titanion down here. She fired directly at the gem on Zero's helmet, though instead of Zero's head being ripped open by bullets, his gem was instead pierced by three feathers"LOVE FLASH!" Instantly, the figure was surrounded by a dim purple orb of electricity, hearts popping in and out on the orb like sonar waves. Suddenly Zero's eyes slowly opened and with a yawn, he slowly got up from the ground, stretching his limbs out as he groaned.

"I'm online?" He said with a slur, eyes glassed over. "Huh." And then he shut down again.

"Shoot, still not enough!" She pounded on Zero's helmet, hard. "Hey Netnavi, get out of there! I saw you with him when Titanion took him!" No response. The figure huffed. "This is going to be annoying.." Zero never let a Netnavi aside from Lola into his systems, and given the state he was in when Titanion found him, Lola was probably knocked offline, because there was _no_ way she would let any Navi near Zero-sama. "His energy is too low. The Navi can't boot up with him like this." She then took a better look at Zero's unconscious state. "What _happened_ to you?" His armor looked worn out, with some cracks on his helmet and sand in his joints. It was like he was spent a month in the desert! She thought about her situation for a second. The amount of electricity she used was always enough to start him up whenever he was being a lazy bones and wouldn't get out of his recharge pod. He didn't have his Buster or Recoil Rod on him, which meant that he only had the Z-Knuckle. Was it worth it to risk getting Titanion's attention? Her and the Einherjar were on an equal stalemate in terms of power. She could short out Titanion's system to the point she would be forced to run a backup AI until her main programming restored itself, but Titanion's heat would be hot enough to turn her electricity into plasma, and she was nowhere near strong enough to wield plasma without incurring life threatening injuries. "I have no choice." She shot more feathers. into him, twenty-five in total, enough to supercharge him and short out all the systems in the jail. "I'll have to use my own Septima to power you up." "I hope you're ready to fight, Zero-sama. GALVANIC PATCH!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Seat Base had four 'towers' built into the mountain. They were able to be seen from many of the civilian walkways and roads built into the colony, and were responsible for maintaining the colony's communications network, making internet activity and phone calls possible, as well as allowing Transerver access to the surface.

The inside of the towers were filled with various wires and servers, all of them requiring a nearly impossible amount of coolant to prevent overheating, as they had to transmit signals deep, deep underwater. Titanion was in the west tower, body glowing as she finished her scan of the ocean, and not liking the results being shown on her HUD .

"A Lagiacrus and a Plesioth..." Two of the most dangerous monsters that could come out of the wormhole, both for this base and for her. Fire Reploids like her have a _huge_ weakness against electricity, with strong enough surges being the equivalent of putting magnet over a floppy disk. A Lagiacrus's electricity could short out the entire base for seconds, enough to let that intruder following her to bust Zero out. It was quite amusing, watching that female Adept try to evade her radar even when she raided the colony's Reploid food supply. It might have worked on a fool like Magnus or Cocapetri(despite him having more advanced tracking software than her), but for someone who lived 24/7 next to crushing blue instant death and had to watch out for the occasional undersea giant fish, the Adept was like a child hiding behind the window curtain after she did something she shouldn't have, thinking she was so clever when in reality she was as dumb as the idiots that worked for Merak. Upon teleporting to the Jail Center's Transerver, she had linked up with the surveillance network on that floor before tossing Zero into the cell. She let the Adept override the jail controls and watched as she revived the Crimson Striker, Titanion noticing the gun being used and most importantly, the Septima.

 _'So that's who you are...'_ She thought as she watched the intruder on her HUD pump more electricity into Zero the feed cutting off due to the electrical interference on the other end. Her body stopped glowing, A manic smile on her face. "Ahh I haven't felt this battle hungry in a _long_ time. Time for us to meet again, Celestial Striker."

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"Finally.." The figure fell to the ground in a heap, panting heavily as the lights turned back on. "I haven't used that much energy in a _long_ time.. Zero stood perfectly still as the electricity flowed through his body, systems coming online one by one until he was back at full power. "Zero-sama, are you awake? Please say you are, my EP's nearly drained.."

"Y-yeah.." Zero grumbled, staring directly at the cloaked figure. "I haven't felt this good since Cerv...wait." He looked at his surroundings, swiping away some message about a ' ' starting up from his HUD. "I'm in a prison? He looked to the cloaked figure. And did you just call me Zero-sama?" And what the heck was EP?

"Yes." The girl said through panted breaths. "Is your...can you fight?"

"Yeah." Zero said, stretching his muscles. "Thank you. Hey X, you awake? I felt you go in me when that fire breather forced me to shut down."

I'm here Zero. And the files that you couldn't open; they've been unlocked! That recharge seemed to have activated your systems! I'm getting some data on someone named Dr. Kamizono and this program named Lola.

 _'What's going on here?'_ The cloaked girl just stared. _'Why did he call that NetNavi X?'_ She didn't know much about NetNavis, but what she did know was that there was a certain taboo against using the name and abilities of the Progenitor Units that birthed them. Their religion was a near fanatical one and Lola was no different. _'She's going to be so pissed when she wakes up.'_

There's more here. There's an entire deck system here with different weapons for all of them. They're all locked to this 'Lola' program, so I can't do anything on that. What's more, our entire skull has been replaced with something called an 'ACP' unit. I'm trying to figure out what that is, but-.

"We'll figure that out later." Zero interrupted. "With the amount of energy that just got poured into me, there's no way that fire breather didn't notice the power surge that followed." He looked down at the cloaked girl. "Thanks for the help. Who are you?"

"..."

"What?"

"Zero-sama I found you near dead and without weapons and now we need to get ready to fight an Einherjar. I don't need you joking around with me."

"...I don't know you well enough to joke around."

"...Oh no.. Zero-sama, do you know of QUILL?"

"No."

"Asimov-sama?"

"No."

"I fried your memory circuit."

"No all my systems are operational. Don't know what this 'Z-Knuckle' is, but-"

"What have I done..."

"You recharged me. Now could you tell me who you-"

"YOU LOST YOUR MEMORY!" She wailed, pounding the floor angrily. "STUPID STUPID STUPID ROKOE!"

"Uh-huh.." Zero muttered. "X, a little help?"

"Your memory's fried! You don't even know who I am! I shouldn't have forced you online like that!"

"...Of course I don't. You're obviously wearing a disguise."

That just made her mood worse. "YOU GAVE ME THIS CLOAK!"

"X, those files better have something to shut her up!"

Hold on, I'll find a file on her. Just have to search for the name she gave and...there! Loading her file now!.

"Ok, lets see..." Zero looked at the file, which included the picture of a blue haired, blue eyed Japanese girl that looked to be in her early teens. Her hair was somewhat messy, with two pigtails on the sides of her head that curled at the end. Her skin was pale, an she had a bright smile on her face, one that almost felt..heavenly in a way, or if you asked Zero, primary spank bait for boys in her age demographic. She wore a strange school uniform, probably from super anime private school that existed in this dimension or something. He looked at the rest of her profile, which was just the generic civilian information you could find on anyone's public record; age, nationality, height weight, criminal history (which was nonexistent) and lastly, her name: Ekoro, no last name given.

 _'Ok, so this is obviously a fake civilian identity. Probably doesn't even look like that under the cloak, either. Z_ ero noticed an arrow icon next to her picture. _'There we go'._ Pressing the icon revealed another of another girl that looked like the complete opposite of Ekoro, and you would be forgiven for thinking this was another girl. But with a keen eye, could tell these two were one in the same...that and if you spelled her name in English, it was a goddamn anagram for Ekoro.

 _'Rokoe...really.'_ Whereas Ekoro in the civilian documents looked like a bubbly sweet high school girl, The expression and posture Rokoe took reminded Zero of X in his rookie days: strong, compassionate, and stupidly naive and trusting to an almost suicidal fault.

HEY!

 _'You know it's true. Up until Sigma's rebellion, I gave you so much shit for being demoted to Chill Penguin's coffee boy.'_ 'Rokoe' had slightly tanned skin, her hair and eyes a somewhat lighter shade of blue. Her hair was somewhat big with a few soft, spiky ends, with most of her hair hair tied into a long, ankle-length ponytail. She wore a high collared overcoat as blue as her hair and eyes, with the tail end of the overcoat almost reaching her legs. The jacket covered a white sailor uniform, and had white running along the rim of the jacket and ending all the way to the collar. Also Zero's, as well as X's attention was focused on the skirt...that criminally short skirt that wouldn't be out of place in Ciel's closet.

ZERO!

 _'What? You saw how short that dress of hers used to be. Seriously, I've interrogated human prostitutes with skirts the same length as hers!'_ He would never say it out loud, but he did get a bit of a chuckle when Menart, taking advantage of Ciel's seemingly perpetually exhausted state, looked under her skirt and saw that well...let's just say it made perfect sense why she kept complaining about a breeze that day. After that bit of embarassment, She made sure she got a _lot_ of sleep that midday..or she fainted. Either way she was getting some rest, so Zero didn't care.

Thankfully Rokoe dark blue bloomers that protected her modesty. Her boots were a point of confusion for the two war verterans. The profile listed the materials and function of the boots, and they were amazingly similar to the movement units that were the used to let him, X, and the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia Dash and Wall Jump. X remembered when they were made. They were commissioned during the Elf wars specifically for X and Zero to increase their Dashing speed to compliment their hit and run style of combat, as well as letting X move as fast as he wanted in his more heavier armor, like the Gaia armor. Rokoe's were black at the top, with blue markings wrapping around the top. The shoe part were separated by pink bracers, similar to the ones on Zero's arms and legs that allowed him to transfer energy into his weapons, eliminating the need for an external energy source, as well as increasing the speed of his Dash. Like Zero's feet, the shoe part was segmented, allowing for double jointed movement impossible for him normally with his single jointed slabs unbendable he called feet; for example, he could perform a 360 degree spin with just one foot, standing on his 'tippy toes' and using just that one foot to rotate his entire body. Given that this girl was obviously human or one of these Adepts, neither of the former Maverick Hunters had no clue what their purpose was. She had fingerless gloves with cufflinks as the end of her coat similar in design to her shoes, and the weapons she had in the picture were quite unusual; the profile listed that they used _feathers_ as ammunition, showing she was an Adept, and that the guns themselves were not very damaging, to Reploids at least. They were the equivalent to a porcupine needle shooting out of a handgun going by what the information in front of him was saying, and they had the ability to stick onto anything. There was a tab about her Septima, but he couldn't access it, and considering X gave the profile to him as is, he couldn't open it either.

"OHH, Ekoro!" Zero said out loud, causing Rokoe's eyes to widen and X to facepalm. "I remember you now! What are you-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Rokoe nearly shouted, covering Zero's mouth. "What the hell are you thinking?!"

"Oh shoot, that's right." Zero asked, speaking through the external speakers on his helmet. "You looked so similar to the other girl I forgot to call you by your proper name."

"You don't call me that during missions. idiot! _I_ have a secret identity that I want to keep very secret, thank you very much! And _you_ don't use honorifics-oh screw it!" Rokoe sighed, taking off her cloak and putting it in her coat pocket, revealing her true form as well as a few details missing from her profile pic: a blue halo, crackling with electricity, appeared over her head, with Two small, bright blue wings floating above her back. . "My cover's blown anyway."

"Obviously." Zero looked up on the ceiling. "There's like three cameras hidden in the ceiling and probably many more outside. Your cover was probably blown the second you opened my cell." Rokoe nearly squeaked in horror. "You probably had to go to a control room to open my cell so you were probably on camera."

"B-but I was cloaked! I was completely invisible!"

"Did you use the same trick you used on me to open my cell?"

"Y-yeah, but the power didn't go out, I just used too much power on the computer and caused it to overheat."

"And what happens when you cause something to overheat?"

"The body part I used to channel the energy starts smoking-" Hey eyes widened in realization. "...which meant that any electronic devices on my person shorted out..oh no.."

"It gets worse." Zero said. "I don't know how to open these 'Battlechip' weapons without this Lola program active. You were probably banking on me using those to fight, right?"

"W-well.."

"Yeah, I'm basically useless in a fight as I am right now."

"How right you are!." Titanion said happily on the other side of the cell as the door turned bright red. "Isn't this my lucky day. Two of QUILL's top agents locked in a cell with no escape." Within seconds the door melted. She walked into the cell, her feet unaffected by the melted slag. " This is _amazing!_ I can't believe you two were stupid enough to come down here, especially you, clunker. As for you angel girl, I gotta thank you. You saved me hours of my time standing over that lazy idiot, forcing him to sign off on those search warrants and investigative reports to find out who kept stealing our E-Crystals. But now that I know it was you, I can just throw all that paperwork out and send your pretty little corpse to Zonda! Sumeragi'll give me at _least_ a month of vacation time for this! Oh, and Angel girl? I got a little surprise for you." Titanion snapped her finger, causing a transparent orb of fiery energy to appear over her body. "It's a little trick I learned recently. The fire will burn your feathers before they even reach me! No Flashfield for you, sorry about that. And as for you Zero.." Zero suddenly heard a loud beeping in his head.

Zero, I'm locked out of the network! I can't get into their systems again!

"I found traces of that new Navi of yours in our network while I was scanning the ocean." Titanion informed him. "Sorry, but until the lazy shit gets back and does his job, I'm the network Admin! You two aren't teleporting out of here!" She held out her arm, her hand disappearing into the large gauntlet and a broadsword made of fire taking it's place.

 _'Impressive.'_ Zero thought as he stared at the sword. _'I don't think Neo Arcadia has been up to the point of creating constructs out of the four elements yet in our dimension.'_

"Quite the nice little addition, huh? When that lazy idiot gets off his ass, he can do great work.. It's the perfect tool for the both of you! Try using that Flashfield, and it converts the electricity in your body to plasma. And if it comes in contact with the metals in your body Zero, it'll heat your body to the point it'll go _straight_ into automatic shutdown!" She swung the blade, sending a wave of sweltering heat their way. "I'm going to kill you girl, and as for you Zero, I'm not taking any chances. Since Merak's probably jerking off somewhere to do actual work, so I'm just going to send you straight to Zonda's headquarters! GET READY!"


End file.
